Vienna had its annual Viva Vienna! festival on Memorial Day weekend, and since Mio had such a great time going last year, we spent a couple hours of our Saturday morning there, going on the rides and enjoying some of the food before it got too crowded and hot. Mio could go on a lot more rides this year because she met the height requirement for most of the rides — our sheet of tickets went fast with all the rides she wanted to go on!
On the carousel at Viva Vienna
She wanted to ride on the giraffe. On the swing ride! Mirei’s first time at Viva Vienna! She was pretty quiet the entire morning in her stroller, letting the rest of us enjoy the festival. Riding on the spinning dragon with Daddy. Daddy’s girl ♥ Making her way up in the funhouse… that’s our climber! Dashing across the bridge! …and coming down the slide! This funhouse seemed to be her favorite (more than the rides), and she wanted to go through it again. Riding the Wiggle Worm ride. On the boat ride
On the train ride. Delicious crabcake sandwich!
Dan and Mio taking a bite.
After coming home from Viva Vienna!, Mio spent the afternoon playing in the wading pool.
The Mosaic District in Merrifield was hosting a Mother’s Day party for mamas and their kids on Sunday, May 4, a week before actual Mother’s Day. You could sign up/apply to be invited, and they chose their invitees by lottery. Luckily, we scored an invitation so I decided to go with Mio while Dan took Mirei with him to go shopping and run errands.
Mio hanging out at the party.
We weren’t told a lot about the party except the location and that there’d be refreshments, Zumba, and a photobooth. I was most excited about the refreshments, least excited about the Zumba. haha* I guess I have this perception that Zumba is for older ladies in their 40s and 50s (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, and no offense to those who do it) plus the prospect of dancing in public on the lawn was pretty embarrassing to me! But I stepped out of my comfort zone so that Mio and I could enjoy the party together. And sure enough, Mio had a grand time dancing — a lot of the time, she was just doing her own dance moves, but there were definitely times when she was actually following the instructor’s moves!
Mio doing Zumba.
Little Zumba dancer.
Some video that I took of Mio:
This photo is from Mosaic District’s Instagram and precisely the kind of thing I was worried about — that there’d be a photo of me awkwardly dancing out on the world wide web. BUT it cracked me up to spot Mio right next to me, passionately doing her little dance moves (just in the opposite direction of everyone else). hahahaha*
After a half hour of Zumba, we were free to go hang out by the photobooth and enjoy the refreshments. Here are the photos of Mio and I from the photobooth.
They had this chalkboard up for the kids to write/draw about their mommies.
Some of the refreshments for moms and their kiddos.
Free lunch of sandwiches and wraps for everyone!
The sandwiches were delicious and worth the embarrassment I had just suffered.
Mio loved the food, too!
Dan came to join us after finishing his errands and got to enjoy some of the free food, too!
The weather was so beautiful, and it was so nice to enjoy lunch outdoors.
Thank you Mio for making me such a lucky Mama!
Can’t forget Mirei! I’m twice as lucky this year.
And of course, Daddy gets some love too.
Sunday also just happened to be the grand opening of Mosaic District’s Farmer’s Market, so we decided to check it out after the party. There were a lot of vendors with gourmet offerings!
Nicecream factory’s liquid nitrogen ice cream: they make and freeze the ice cream right there in front of your eyes!
The flavors all sounded amazing. We really enjoyed the chocolate sea salt ice cream!
Dan picked up a chocolate cherry tomato plant to add to his edible garden.
Runaway sisters! Mio kept pushing Mirei’s stroller everywhere at the market.
Afterwards, we headed over to our friend’s baby shower over in Maryland. It was a very eventful and fun-filled day!
Dan took the day off on Monday so that we could all spend the day with Ted and Jackie before they left DC. We thought it’d be a great opportunity to see the cherry blossoms by the Tidal Basin, but alas, the blossoms were definitely past their peak (they were probably best over the weekend, but we knew the crowds would be crazy) and were looking pretty green, with most of the petals in the water and on the ground. It was really windy that day, too, which probably expedited the wilting of the blossoms. Still, we had a nice time walking around the Tidal Basin and admiring the few trees that were still in full bloom, and also got to check out the National WWII Memorial as well. Despite how windy it was, it was a beautiful day — sunny but not too hot or uncomfortable. 🙂
Mio enjoying all the attention from Auntie Jackie while on the Metro.
Arriving at the Tidal Basin… but both girls were conked out.
Jackie and Ted with the cherry blossoms. Such a cute picture of a cute couple!
Mirei woke up so we took a photo with just us girls.
Attempt at a family photo… but Mio is too focused on eating her tortilla chip.
The Jefferson Memorial in the distance.
What was left of the cherry blossoms…
My favorite flowers and Mio’s namesake… still beautiful!
Mirei was so well-behaved the entire time. Even when she was awake, she was so quiet and let us enjoy the cherry blossoms in peace.
Dan and Mio by one of the original cherry blossom trees.
A cherry blossom tree in full bloom
Another family photo… looks like we just can’t get one without Mio eating a chip!
Ted & Jackie under the sakura.
Making our way over to the National WWII Memorial. Mio had a blast getting swung by Auntie Jackie and Uncle Ted!
She couldn’t get enough of the attention!
It was actually my first time seeing the WWII Memorial too since it had been built in 2004, and it was really beautiful and impressive!
Mio getting a photo with auntie and uncle.
She thoroughly enjoyed playing by the fountain.
Full of “what’s that?” questions.
The Freedom Wall on the west side of the memorial has 4,048 gold stars, each representing 100 Americans who died in the war.
There were so many people there!
Mio with Ted & Jackie by the fountain.
Mio was in such a good mood the whole day! Love our little sweetheart.
Sharing a popsicle before heading home.
Ted and Jackie left after dinner on Monday, but the family visits continue with Dan’s parents flying in tonight! They haven’t seen Mio in over a year and it’ll be their first time meeting Mirei. We look forward to spending lots of quality time together. 🙂
The weather was much warmer this weekend, and Mio got to have her first gardening experience with Daddy on Saturday! They planted tomato, cucumber, and cilantro seeds in egg cartons to get them growing before we transfer them to the soil later in the spring.
Getting ready to garden!
The seeds to be planted: cilantro, cucumber, and tomatoes.
Daddy handing Mio the seeds.
Carefully placing the sees into the soil.
Mio was such a great helper!
Mio listened really well to Dan and did a great job of dropping the seeds into the little holes Dan made in the soil. Maybe she’ll grow up to have a green thumb (unlike her Mama’s black thumb… for the life of me, I can’t manage to keep any plants alive!). We’re looking forward to see how our produce will grow in the coming months.
